Temperature significantly affects hydraulic and mechanical properties and behaviours of geomaterials, even in absence of phase changes of the fluid phases. Soil slopes containing a significant proportion of clay minerals seems the most affected even by comparatively small temperature oscillations, which can occur, in the shallow subsurface, as an effect of seasonal and long-term (e.g., under climate change) thermal forcings from the atmosphere and via solar irradiation. This work aims to explore and quantify the temperature-dependence of soil hydro-mechanical properties via dedicated experiments, and use the insights gained to perform physically-based modelling at the scales of individual slopes and catchments, so that to understand whether the temperature of the slope should be systematically accounted for in slope stability, landslide dynamics, and hazard/risk assessment studies.
Preliminary scope of work in English
Temperature significantly affects hydraulic and mechanical properties and behaviours of geomaterials, even in absence of phase changes of the fluid phases. Soil slopes containing a significant proportion of clay minerals seems the most affected even by comparatively small temperature oscillations, which can occur, in the shallow subsurface, as an effect of seasonal and long-term (e.g., under climate change) thermal forcings from the atmosphere and via solar irradiation. This work aims to explore and quantify the temperature-dependence of soil hydro-mechanical properties via dedicated experiments, and use the insights gained to perform physically-based modelling at the scales of individual slopes and catchments, so that to understand whether the temperature of the slope should be systematically accounted for in slope stability, landslide dynamics, and hazard/risk assessment studies.
- assigned by the advisor